The sky is falling today in Canada after the men’s team lost to the USA in the final round robin game of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. It’s bad enough that Canada finished sixth in the preliminary standings. It’s worse that the quarter final opponent will now be Russia. It’s apocalyptic that Martin Brodeur lost the game. Just about every goalie debate pre-Olympics dictated that Brodeur was the starter, Roberto Luongo the backup and Marc-Andre Fleury the third man out. But today Twitter is abuzz with condemnation of Brodeur.

Luongo was the respectful backup in Torino but now a nation looks to him for hockey redemption.

Maintaining a blog while working long hours at a funded internet startup is difficult; trying to do so with a new baby at home is close to impossible. You may have noticed (I know some of you have because you’ve made me aware of it) little activity recently on TendersLounge, but today I am obligated to sign back into WordPress. A surprisingly large number of you have called/emailed/twittered to get my take on the huge deal signed this week between the Vancouver Canucks and their all-world goalie Roberto Luongo. So after sending out a few emails and tweets I figured it would be better for everyone if I shared my thoughts here.

Roberto Luongo contemplates the prospect of another 13 rainy winters in Vancouver

Steve Yzerman recently attended the World Championships in Switzerland to scout for the 2010 Olympics. With that in mind, and after some surprise performances in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the time has come to begin the goalie watch for the Games. The Canadian home ice advantage, the use of an NHL-sized ice surface and the league’s unwillingness to commit to the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia are laying the groundwork for what could be the best hockey tournament of all time. So it’s only fitting to expect the best display of goaltending. Most countries will hold summer camps and then evaluate the first half of next season before will making their final decisions but we say let the armchair quarterbacking begin! The top contenders for the gold medal will each need to make some potentially difficult decisions so Tenders Lounge will dedicate separate posts to the medal contenders. First up, the home team Canadians.

Not only are does Team Canada face the pressure of being the host country but they also need to remove the bitter taste from a 7th place finish at the 2006 Torino games.

Luongo and Brodeur were expected to reprise their roles from Torino. Will anyone push them out of the picture?

Notice anything new about Luongo’s mask? Like the “C” on his chin… only a few inches away from wear a captain would typically wear it on his jersey? Where there’s a will there’s a way to solve any problem (or break any rule).

Wow! Today the Canucks announced that Roberto Luongo will serve as their team captain! I’ve always thought goalies were not allowed to be captain but it turns out they’re just not allowed to wear the “C” on their jersey. So the Canucks will have alternates who can talk to the referees on the ice but ‘Captain Canuck’ will now officially be Captain Canuck. The first role of captain is to lead a band of brothers for nine months out of the year and when you think of the great captains in hockey history can you really think of anyone on the Canucks better suited to this role? I’m not sure there’s any team in the NHL who relies more on one player than the Canucks do on Luongo. So congrats to Luongo for breaking new ice with this role and kudos to Canucks’ management for thinking outside the box in putting him there.